Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Run Down: Raleigh's Wesley Frazier runs a national record at New Balance Nationals

Frazier post-race getting interviewed

High schoolers from all over the nation were treated to some cooler than normal weather this evening (mid 70's) as they poured into this year's New Balance Outdoor Nationals at Irwin Belk Track at North Carolina A&T. The distance events kicked were kicked off around 8pm, with the seldomly run in high school, 5000 meters.

There were two heats each for the boys and girls and Raleigh Ravenscroft's Wesley Frazier kicked things into high gear with a national sophomore record (and 26 second PR) and convincing win in 16:24.84 (the former record was Julia Stamps 16:31.2 from 1995, the same year I ran the 2000 Steeple as NSO's). Frazier bided her time and ran 79's and 80's most of the way until she turned it up and took the lead with 1200 to go; running her last two laps in 76 and 70. Here's a video of her record breaking race and here's her post race interview. Here are full results.

The guys race was going to be the Edward Cheserek show with a chance at a sub 14 in the cards. It wasn't to be today as Cheserek blazed out in 63 and stayed under 14:00 pace until 2400 meters, where he started to run 70-72 second laps. He still hung in there and took down the meet record, running a 66 second last lap to finish in 14:25.74. Another North Carolinian ran wel,l as Cary junior Thomas Graham was the runner up in a PR of 14:45.42. Here's a video of the race. Here are full results.